Ballcaps!

Happy National Hat Day to my ballcap collecting friends!

It was August 28, 1993. That's when the idea of collecting ballcaps first hit. The New York Yankees were at the Cleveland Indians, and I was there with Larry, who of course is one of my very best friends. We had gone to many sporting events together, and even met on the road at a game or two, but we took this road trip together shortly before his wedding, as he wanted to join one of my ballpark chasing trips. We went to two games at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and the Yankees split, but what stands out more than anything was Larry buying an Indians cap, saying he thought it would be cool to pick up a hat at each stadium he visited. 

I thought that was a great idea on one hand, but I was snobbish enough on the other to not want a hat of any team but the ones for which I rooted. Still, I knew that could make for a great collection if pursued. As I had been to seven or eight stadiums at that point, though, that notion came and went. Just like I had done with the National Park Passport stamping, I thought I was too far along to start collecting caps in Cleveland. Pictures and ticket stubs would have to do for preserving memories.

Sure, I've picked up hats for my Yankees and Giants along the way, and, in fact, I picked up plenty as giveaways while a (partial) Yankee season ticket holder in the early 2000s, but it was Minor League baseball that made me rethink cap collecting.

I bought a cap at my first Minor League game—a local Hudson Valley Renegades one in about 2008. At the time, the Gades were a Rays affiliate, but I had no trouble at all supporting this local team of mine. As my interest in MiLB grew, visits to more and more local ballparks started taking place. In particular Trenton Thunder and SWB RailRiders games became annual or semi-annual events, and I ended up with caps for them too—both Yankee affiliates, there was no worry of being perceived as anything but a Yankee fan. 

Still, though, my cap collection remained modest. For the longest time, it was just a few from local sports teams, one from Glacier National Park (because one can never have too much swag from there), and a couple from ski country (specifically, local Catamount and northeast favorite Stowe). Oh, then I scored a Long Trail Brewing Co. one at an après ski event a dozen or so years ago. Nice and meaty, it is a winter favorite for sure. A fun memory with that one was wearing it in Heavenly, and a bartender asking me how much I wanted for it. Apparently, a guy at the end of the bar saw it and thought it really cool. He then offered me a beer, and asked how much I wanted for it. If it weren't snowing and I didn't need it for the 10-minute walk, I'm pretty sure I'd have given it up. I apologized and just hoped that I didn't trigger any bad karma.

We're in the mid 2010s by this point, and my MiLB travels were picking up with several new ballparks each year. The ballcaps though? I focused more on shirts and let the caps go.

Well, in 2016, I took a road trip around Texas and New Mexico. One of my first stops was a Round Rock Express game. I was wearing that Glacier hat for some reason, a fact I remember only because I lost it there. Did I pick up a Round Rock hat? Nope, not at the time. A couple days later a Big Bend National Park cap was my hat purchase on that trip. So, I was down one Glacier cap but up a Big Bend hat. No problem.

Two years later, while planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest, a Hillsboro Hops beer hat on the team site caught my eye. I mean, beer and baseball together? Cheers, man! 

The Asheville Tourists in 2021 were next—"Tourists"? Yes, that worked well for me as the frequent road-trip taker in me dug the logo. And later that year, I did something of a baseball bucket list thing and went to an Arizona Fall League game. Yeah, a ballcap from there was totally in order. The funny thing with that hat was starting a quarrel between a husband and wife who were trying to suggest the best fit for me: she said a tight-fitting one now would wear well after a few times whereas a comfortable hat would get too loose over time, but he disagreed and said to get something that fit well then. I wish I listened to him. Still, my Scorpions hat is one of my cooler looking ones.

The AZFL league hat on the left, and two from the Grapefruit League are to the right.

Either way, I was largely behaving myself, even as I became acquainted with more and more baseball cap collecting friends. In fact, in those early 2020s, it was still just those few ballclub caps and a few ski resort ones.

SABR also led to my acquiring a few—one from the Pittsburgh meeting in 2018 and then an actual SABR one in 2022, not to mention a Saint Paul Saints one two years later. And a Hall of Fame visit led to yet another one in 2022. Wait a minute. OK, the collection was growing, but at least I was still doing pretty well with my allegiances.

In retrospect, 2022 is where things changed. First, on a trip to Florida that included a Yankees Spring Training game, yeah, a Yankees' Spring Training cap was too much to pass up. At a Sioux Falls Canary game, I knew I'd be the only kid on the block with a hat from a South Dakota ballpark. What a nice little souvenir that was. I believe that is where the idea of picking up one hat per road trip struck again—not at every ballpark on a given trip, but one hat per trip. Then there was a Cape Cod League hat, and the aforementioned  HoF and SABR caps. 

In 2023, I went to Alaska, and the Midnight Sun game. I think everyone who went got a cap there. I also went to El Paso that season, and got a Chihuahua cap. So, one hat per road trip—whether a weekend road trip, or a one-week vacation. I was still sticking to that.

In 2024, though, it was back to Florida for more spring training and national parks, it was a weekend in Columbus, close to a week in Minnesota, and a weekend in North Carolina. Cap, cap, cap, cap: Well, I ended up with two caps from the Florida trip and two from Minnesota—one ballpark and one national park from each trip, or six total for that year's travel. Yeah, my cap-buying rule was basically out the window.

This past year was when I went nuts. First, I had had some personal time piggybacked to business travel. That was followed a week later by a big road trip I had planned for the central states, and picked up some different caps for the occasion since I just couldn't decide on one. That was five new caps right there. There were fun or intriguing logos on these caps, and I just liked wearing them at the games. For a weekend in California, I likewise picked out a hat that I liked from one of the venues, and thought it appropriate for two of the games we attended in fact. And, it has struck me more than once how a MiLB hat can let me fit in at a MLB venue. 

The hats from my 2025 travel.

I mean, me wear an Astros hat? Never. But the aforementioned Tourists hat? Sure. A Rays hat? Nope. But a Durham Bulls one? For sure. A Red Sox hat? Be serious. But a Somerset Patriots hat (whose logo resembles the old NE Patriots one)? You bet. A Guardians hat? Meh. But a Columbus Clippers one? Definitely. Or, most recently, an A's hat? Nah. But a Stockton Ports one? Absolutely.

That California trip was it for travel for a while, but it wasn't it for my hat collection, not by a longshot. I had thought of Larry's old idea of a hat from each ballpark a few times, and we've joked about it more than once over the years. Indeed, what a nice memento it'd have been. Well, that's when I caved some more: I was pretty well stocked with caps from my ballpark travel from this decade, but was a bit more hit and miss from the 2010s. I thought of the MiLB ballpark road trips I took in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019 and  hit the MiLB store to buy one hat from one of the teams seen on each of those trips. (That Round Rock one alluded to above, in fact, was my choice for 2016.) My collection felt so much more complete. 

The seven hats I picked to backfill my collection.

It next became a matter or figuring out what to do with them. I had a small little wall rack inside my closet that I'd completely outgrown, and wanted a way to display them better anyway, and especially to access them quickly if going out. This contraption should keep things neat for a few years or so. Or maybe through this summer...

My hat storage rack. Each compartment holds up to eight.